1883.
June 8.
Ikengo.
10 a .m . on the 8th of June. The land between had
been almost one unbroken verdant forest of fine timber
—teak, mahogany, guiacum, red and yellow wood,
fine gum, plane, and bombas abundant, and frequently
of enormous girth. The islands were long, and showed
forests of equal height and luxuriance, while their
sides presented tangled undergrowths of various species
of palms and rattan.
On the appearance of the flotilla, the Ikengo people
dashed out into the stream to meet us, in scores of tiny
canoes, all crying out their welcome, and shouting the
praises of their various villages, precisely like hotel
touters throughout the Levant.
“ Come to Ikengo,” they cried. “ Ikengo is rich;
Ikengo has abundance of food.” “ Ho, come to Itumbu.
Come and see Inganda. Inganda has ivory, slaves,
women, goats, sheep, pigs. Inganda is blessed with
abundance. Stanley, have you forgotten u s ; we who
traded with you years ago ? Ah, Stanley, come on to
Ikengo. There is plenty of beer and wine in Ikengo.”
And thus these extraordinary people extolled the virtues
of their respective villages, making the river alive
with their increasing throng and restless movement.
After carefully weighing the various advantages of
the villages, since I well recognised the locality, which
in 18*77 provided me by their impromptu market on
one of the islands opposite, I chose Inganda as a temporary
resting-place.
Like all the Wy-yanzi, from the Kwa upward, the
people were of a wholesome, healthy bronze colour, hut,
the others, they affected caps of monkey, otter,
leopard, goat, and antelope skin, while their swords
hung suspended by broad shoulder-belts of red buffalo-
hide. Cotton cloth, however, was rare among these
A VERY POOR NATIVE OP INGANDA AND HIS DRESS.
people, their dress being a fine or coarse tissue made of
grassy fibre.
I selected Inganda as a stopping place, whence,
while affecting to make preparations for settlement, I
might reconnoitre that large affluent the Ikelemba,
Mentioned in the * Through the Dark Continent.’ Posunlike